Drone art can offer a sense of wonder and peace. When programmed with precision and nuance, drones are gentle, quiet and slow moving; they make it look like we have the power to manipulate the stars.

Electric Skies, the evolution of last year’s Adelaide Fringe drone-art production Sky Song, brought this high-tech medium together with ancient First Nations symbols, songlines and stories, and it proved a seamless marriage.

Electric Skies in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi. Photo: Helen Page

The half-hour spectacle, featuring 500 drones soaring over Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi, was accompanied by a soundtrack by multi-award-winning electronic music duo Electric Fields. Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross’s score effortlessly fused ancient songlines of the Aṉangu people, the community from which Fielding comes, with the iconic Electric Fields sound. The music sent pulses and vibrations through the park, allowing audiences to become immersed in the production.

The show is not built around linear storytelling. Instead, it’s a multi-sensory experience that asks audiences to interpret the constellations above them, and let themselves be moved by the music and art.

Electric Skies opened with drones forming the image of a witchetty grub. Birds, echidnas and snakes all followed, and even a breathtaking image of a face staring down at the audience. There were also contemporary symbols: red stilettos – and a pop of a foot, red lips, and a figure standing at a keyboard. Many of these images were inspired by Fielding’s visual art and were impressively re-imagined in the sky by Drone Sky Shows.

A rainbow colour palette featured frequently throughout Electric Skies. This, perhaps, gave a nod to Sydney Mardi Gras and World Pride, which took place on the streets of Sydney over this same weekend. This parallel of pride and progress made the Electric Skies experience feel like it was not contained only to the Parkland in Adelaide’s CBD, but part of a universal story. Electric Fields also created the World Pride theme song, “We The People”, and performed at the opening night.

Electric Skies featured for only two nights at this year’s Fringe, but the hundreds of people who attended seemed to be swept up in the vision of it all. You could hear this in the little whispers and gasps from the audience members – young and old – as they tried guessing what would come next as the drones softly made their way through their formations.

Electric Skies was presented over Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi on Friday and Saturday nights.

Read more 2023 Adelaide Fringe stories and reviews on InReview here.

First Nations symbols, songlines and stories inspired the Electric Skies spectacle. Photo: Helen Page / Adelaide Fringe